Release Date: Oct 17, 2025
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Hardcore Punk
Record label: Loma Vista Recordings
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2023's Life Under The Gun was a sub-30 minute sprint, but the sophomore effort starts on more restrained tones. Opener "Pt. II" finds vocalist Ian Shelton speaking to a confidante on the phone about recent troubles. This tone lasts all of 20 seconds before Shelton's cut off, mid sentence, by the caveman drums of "B A D I D E A".
Militarie Gun know how to start their records off with a bang. Their 2023 breakthrough album, Life Under the Gun, won countless new fans over in less than a minute with the guttural "ooh ooh" that punctuates "Do It Faster." It's a signature moment that absolutely goes off live. The band have even been known to close out shows by playing the track back to back, repeating it while dozens of fans rush the stage and grab the mic.
Los Angeles outfit’s second album mixes hardcore punk and pop rock with sincerity and passion with infectious results What Militarie Gun do isn't groundbreaking, it isn't even new – but it's done so unbelievably well that you'd think they were the inventors and pioneers of that sound. Generally, their music can be described as a mixture of decaf punk and chunky, riffy rock with aggressive, expressive vocals. They're occasionally rubbery, sometimes groovy, mostly hooky and always entertaining.
Whatever. Not everyone agreed, and new fans flocked to the band in droves. Bob Mould performed a Hüsker Dü song with them. Post Malone tapped them to record a custom track for his walk-on music in a wrestling video game (yes, really). The album was also critically lauded, receiving positive-to ….
Militarie Gun broke through with Life Under the Gun, an infectious blend of indie and hardcore that won me over after seeing the band play live. Once those tracks got their hooks in me, I’d leave it on repeat all afternoon. Lead singer and lyricist Ian Shelton is a triple threat: a compelling vocalist, a clever lyricist, and hook-writing machine.
Four songs proper into Militarie Gun's second record, 'God Owes Me Money' ends with a skipping vocal; "I'm addicted to getting lit," it repeats with notable resignation, before making way for the devastating 'Daydream', a palpable realisation by frontman Ian Shelton. It's one of more than its fair share of arresting moments on 'God Save The Gun', an overt retelling of Ian's downward spiral into alcohol addiction, ongoing depression, and outright chaos. It's also the ellipsis to the band's own turbulence, having brought three new members into the fold since the release of 2023's scene-setting 'Life Under The Gun'.
The post-pandemic hardcore boom has given rise to myriad unique adjacent musical fusions, along with a few less successful ones. Militarie Gun are comfortably one of the most interesting post-hardcore (to completely repurpose that term) bands on the scene today, primarily because their music is very straightforward and easy-to-grasp. They've done so without crafting a diluted, 'pop' version of the genre, à la the biggest new rock band on Earth Turnstile.
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